Nalu Week 2016
by RedFantasies
Summary: My oneshots for Nalu week. Little bit of angst but mostly fluff
1. Chapter 1

**Longing: A strong, persistent desire or craving, especially for something unattainable or distant**

 **Playlist: Fly Away by JoJo, Come Back Be Here by Taylor Swift, Alone Again by Alyssa Reid, Don't You Want to Stay by Kelly Clarkson ft. Jason Aldean**

 _Lucy never imagined that studying abroad would be this emotionally taxing. College AU._

Lucy never imagined studying abroad would be as difficult as it was. It wasn't the course work that was taking a mental toll on her (although there were several times she stayed up until two in the morning, but which college student doesn't do that?) No, what was bothering her was the long stretch of time away from her friends. She missed studying in the library with Levy before they got kicked out for giggling and talking too much. She missed walking around campus with Erza hunting down the most perfect strawberry cake in Magnolia. Hell, she even missed Gray's odd stripping habit and the arguments and reprimands that followed. She especially missed Natsu, her boyfriend of six months, although they had been best friends throughout high school. Lucy missed his grin that could light up an entire room, she missed the way he would ruffle her hair and call her a weirdo, she missed cuddling with him on her couch until her eyes fluttered shut from feeling warm and safe. On a daily basis, her heart would hurt when they talked and Natsu told her funny stories about how Erza punched Gray in the head for being an idiot, or how Juvia would glare at any female who laid eyes on Gray and call them her "love rival".

Of course Lucy kept in touch with them; she and Natsu spent hours texting and talking on the phone everyday but it wasn't the same. Natsu's voice sounded different when he was on the phone and she always had to be careful with what she said since there were obviously other people around. She almost wished her friends had persuaded her not to travel, but that didn't happen. All they wanted was for her to be happy, and they knew that this trip would be beneficial to her career as a writer. So they had sent her off and she reluctantly accepted with lots of hugs and promises of keeping in touch. Natsu had driven her to the airport the morning of her flight. They had gone to the gate together before Lucy had broken down in tears. Natsu had comforted her with soft promises of keeping in touch every day, wiping away tears, and soft kisses that made her heart melt.

But now, after three long months, she was on her way home from the Pergrande Kingdom, the farthest country away from Fiore. According to the pilot, the plane was flying fast. In Lucy's opinion the plane should be flying faster. The smart thing to do would be to sleep, but the happiness and excitement of seeing her friends again was overwhelming. On her last day in Pergrande, Natsu had promised her a movie marathon all night long and as much ice cream as the two of them could possibly it. Their ice cream and movie marathons had been a tradition that had been formed in their second year of high school. Natsu had originally come up with the idea after going through a grueling week of tests, essays, and presentations. The tradition had become a weekly occurrence by the time high school ended, a tradition that still persisted throughout college. Both of them would drop any plans they had on Friday and hang out, 99% of the time at Lucy's dorm room, and watch movies and eat ice cream until their eyes closed and their stomachs hurt. The thought brought a smile to her face. Sure it was a break from tradition, it would be on a Wednesday after all, but she figured it was to make up for lost time.

After four hours the plane had finally, _finally_ reached Magnolia Intercontinental Airport and Lucy was waiting impatiently for the plane to roll to a stop. When the aircraft stopped moving, she grabbed the bag she had taken on the plane with her and unapologetically pushed her way through the mass of people trying to exit through the small door. As soon as the doorway that led to the airport was in her sight, Lucy strained her eyes to try and see Natsu's bright pink hair. _Damn it, he's not here_. Fortunately Levy was waiting for her outside so she wasn't completely disappointed. "Levy!" she squealed and Lucy almost knocked the small, bluenette over.

"Lu!" the two friends were drawing the attention of everyone in the immediate area. A couple of people were glaring but the majority were looking upon the two with smiles. "Mavis, I missed you so much!"

"I know I missed you too! I brought you back a bunch of best-sellers there that I already read and I really think you'll like them!"

"Come on the others are waiting for us!" Levy exclaimed and the two all but ran to the baggage claim area. When they were approaching, Lucy saw a familiar flash of pink hair that she could recognize anywhere.

"Natsu!" she yelled and effectively grabbed the attention of most of the people in the area. The one person who knew her better than anyone else turned around and flashed her his mega-watt grin.

"Hey Luce! How are you?" With tears of happiness blurring her vision she dropped her bags and sprinted across the room into his arms. When her face was buried in his red shirt the tears began to fall. "Why are you crying?" he asked somewhat alarmed. Lucy let herself be comforted by the heat that he seemed to radiate year-round and the scent of campfire smoke.

"I missed you so much," she said, looking him in the eyes. "I'm never doing that again." He leaned down and kissed her forehead.

"I missed you too weirdo," he laughed at the affectionate nickname he came up with when they first met. "C'mon, we have three months to catch up on!" And with that he grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door to his car. As Natsu took his motion-sickness pill and placed one hand on the wheel, the other lacing his fingers through hers, Lucy felt the dull ache that had been consistent throughout the weeks leading up to her trip and the days during it, fade away. With laughs, jokes, and storytelling, the persistent _longing_ that Lucy had been plagued with everyday finally faded away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Reunion: An instance of two or more people coming together again after a period of separation**

 **Playlist: Last Chance by Alyssa Reid, Hush Hush, Goodbye, When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne, Memories by Panic! at the Disco, What Hurts the Most by Rascal Flatts, Camouflage by Selena Gomez**

 **Spoilers for the GMG (Grand Magic Games) Arc**

Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Lily, Wendy, Charle, Yukino, Mirajane, and Loke had all been shocked when they saw another Lucy who claimed to be from the future. The Lucy from the future had been shocked as well. Not just that her plan for time traveling had worked, but that her friends were alive and she could see them again. It had felt like it had been decades since the last time she had seen other Fairy Tail members since they had all died during the dragons' onslaught. Tears were gathering in her eyes and they started silently falling. "Hey why are you crying?" Natsu panicked and simultaneously felt anger slowly building up. He had always hated seeing Lucy cry, even if this wasn't technically the Lucy from the present, but Future Lucy is still Lucy. The older blonde just shook her head and wrapped her arms around Natsu's neck while she cried into his vest. Not knowing what else to do, he pulled her into a much-needed hug.

"I'm sorry," she cried. "I haven't seen you in years and," she didn't finish and continued sobbing.

"Why, what happened to me?" Natsu tentatively asked, not positive that he really wanted to know. The Lucy in his arms sniffled before talking.

"Dragons from the past attacked and slaughtered everyone. Only me, and a handful of others, survived. You had attacked a dragon to protect me and," she trailed off as more tears spilled out of her eyes. Just thinking about that moment made her heart physically hurt.

Natsu may be dense, but he wasn't anywhere close to stupid. For years, being in Fairy Tail was Lucy's dream and he remembered when Phantom Lord had attacked to take her away how she had turned to him and, with tears in her eyes, said, "I still want to stay in the guild, I love Fairy Tail!" Later that day he had comforted her yet again to tell her that she _belonged_ in Fairy Tail, that it was her new home. Future Lucy must have been so alone; all of Fairy Tail, all of her family, was gone. And she had seen it happen. She just said that she had seen him die by a creature that he was supposed to have the power to destroy. He could understand why she was so distraught.

"Shh, it's ok. Thanks to you none of that will happen. You saved our future," Natsu whispered to her and she nodded her head while tears were still trailing down her face. After a fair amount of hesitation, Natsu leaned down and gently kissed her forehead and then continued whispering comforting words to her to get Future Lucy to calm down.

In the end, Future Lucy was just happy she could see the most important person in her life, the person she had fallen in love with all those years ago. After all, a short, bittersweet _reunion_ was better than none at all.


	3. Chapter 3

**Admiration: A feeling of great respect and approval**

 **Playlist: Exceptional by JoJo, Faith by Jordin Sparks, Team by Lorde, Love Me by Katy Perry**

 _Spoilers for Tartaros and the current manga arc_

Natsu knew Lucy considered herself the weakest link in their team of five. It was something she was reminded of quite frequently when they went on missions or just any bad situation, which unfortunately happened quite a lot. But those thoughts, Natsu hoped, had started to go away after their fight with Tartaros. Like he had said when he finally found her lying exhausted on the ground, she _had_ saved them by fighting Jackal, Lamy, and Torafuzar simultaneously. And after they had barely won their war with Alvarez, Natsu had learned just how costly that fight had been for her. He knew that she considered Aquarius to be her closest friend and she had to sever her ties with her, temporarily of course because now Lucy was about to start searching for the second key that Aquarius had told her about. Then there had been their fight with the assassin and one of the Spriggan 12, Jacob. Natsu, as he had been told later, had just woken up from being in a magic-induced coma and was right in time to prevent a knife from killing her. That situation had been painful to be in, as it reminded him of when Future Lucy had died, a memory that was still scarily vivid in his mind. But anyway, the majority of their guild members that weren't strewn across Fiore had been transported to an alternate dimension and it was only thanks to Lucy's quick thinking that they had been brought back. To be honest, Natsu was surprised, not that he didn't already know she was smart, but the fact that Gemini turned into Marin was incredible. That meant that Lucy had the same amount of magic power as he did otherwise Gemini wouldn't have been able to transform into him. Natsu clearly hadn't been the only one training during his one-year absence.

In all honesty, Natsu had always respected his best friend. It had to have taken a lot of nerve on her part for running away from home. A home where she had never had to work a day in her life to setting out and becoming a mage, but he wouldn't have it any other way. If it hadn't been for her running away, they would never have met that fateful day in Hargeon when Lucy had just been another person kind of enough to buy him food in exchange for breaking, what he now knew, was a love charm. Then they had met again on that ship where Natsu had, inevitably, destroyed half the port before grabbing her wrist and pulling her with him while they ran away from the city guards.

Lucy _admired_ Natsu too, but not only for his magic power. When he wasn't blowing up towns, making city mayors and the magic council angry, breaking into her apartment, or messing around in the guild he was sweet, kind, and loyal to the point where he would do anything for the guild, for his family. Like during their war with Hades on Tenrou Island, or during the battle with Tartaros, or even more recently, their close victory against the Zeref and his empire. Another thing, Natsu always saw the best in people. He had let Brandish be released from her cell after she had shrunk his tumor down to a benign size. Everybody had been shocked about that but he didn't take back his actions even though it was written over almost everybody's face that they did _not_ approve.

Their solid support for each other was shown through little things, like training together or giving each other a high-five after a mission, whether it had been hard or not. Natsu would give Lucy a shoulder to cry on and Lucy made sure that Natsu's destructive tendencies didn't get too out of hand before the government could get involved. Their relationship maybe wasn't as pronounced as some other people's, like Juvia flooding the guildhall after Gray got home from a mission, but it was enough for them, and that's all that really mattered.


	4. Chapter 4

**Secrets: Something that is kept, or meant to be kept, unknown or unseen by others**

 **Playlist: Escape by Megan Nicole, Run Away by Megan and Liz, Undercover and We Own the Night by Selena Gomez, Stay the Night and I Want You to Know by Zedd**

After Natsu and Lucy officially began dating the majority of the guild remained unaware of the two's new relationship. Lucy had put her foot down when Natsu mentioned it because a) she didn't want to be treated differently and b) she didn't want rumors to go around and be teased and interviewed by everyone. Upon deciding that, Natsu had asked Laki to do a favor for him. Judging that she wasn't the kind of person who actively participated in the various rumors that seemed to be circulating the guild at any given day, he had asked her to help him build a treehouse. Natsu wanted to surprise Lucy with a more isolated place where people wouldn't be barging in, unlike her apartment, and that was cleaner than his house (because Lucy refused to clean it, or even step foot in it most of the time). Laki had agreed and the two secretly worked on plans when no one was around.

Two weeks after he and Laki had started planning she announced that the treehouse was done and the two decorated it with a desk, a bookshelf, a couch with some blankets and pillows, and a movie lacrima. Natsu had thanked Laki extensively for her help and in return the purple-haired girl promised not to say a thing about either Natsu and Lucy's relationship and not to tell anyone, especially Lucy, about the newly built treehouse. Later that day Natsu had walked the familiar path to Lucy's apartment and climbed in through the window. Lucy, who had long since given up in trying to get Natsu to use the front door like a normal person, merely looked up from the book she was reading.

"Hey Natsu, what's up?" she asked with a smile. "I was just about to make dinner, do you want to stay?" That last question was just a formality, she knew Natsu would stay whether she invited him or not. To her surprise Natsu shook his head.

"Not right now, there's something I want to show you," he shook his head vigorously and held out his hand. "Come on, we should get there before it gets dark outside." Lucy raised an eyebrow, suspicious of her best friend's behavior.

"What did you do?" She gave him an accusatory glare and he sighed.

"I didn't blow anything up if that's what you're worried about. Come on Luce, we need to leave now!" he pouted.

"Fine, fine. We'll leave now. Lead the way," she acquiesced. Natsu gave Lucy one of his mega-watt grins as he carried her bridal style towards the window. "Natsu, for once, can't we leave through the front door?" she asked, exasperation clear in her voice.

"Nope, it's too slow," he replied and leapt out of the open window and then set her down on the ground. He grabbed his best friend's hand and pulled her along, both of them laughing and talking before reaching the edge of the forest. "Ok, you have to close your eyes," he instructed stopping the two in their tracks. Lucy clearly wasn't happy about it but she complied with his order.

"If you run me into a tree I'll kill you Dragneel," she threatened and Natsu gulped. Despite the fact that they were now dating, Lucy still had the power to terrify him. She must have picked it up from being around Erza so much, although every woman in Fairy Tail seemed to be terrifying at one point or another.

"I won't!" he protested and gently guided her through the tangle of trees, telling her when to step over branches or roots of trees. Several times she asked if they were there yet as Natsu dragged her deeper and deeper into the forest. After ten minutes of walking Natsu stopped. "Ok, you can open your eyes!" While he was excited, he was also incredibly nervous. Of course Lucy would say she liked it, that was the kind of person she was, but he wondered if she would genuinely appreciate it. Lucy had told him multiple times that she didn't particularly care about receiving material things like clothes, money, or jewelry but the doubts still crept into his mind. He watched in nervousness as she looked up the tree to see the simple treehouse that had been nestled in the branches of the tree above them.

"I know it's not much, but I figured that it would be something special," he offered his explanation to his girlfriend, anxiously awaiting her response. Her hands covered her mouth and Lucy looked like she had tears in her eyes. With no words she ran up to Natsu and almost slammed him into the trunk of the tree.

"I love it," she whispered. "Thank you so much." He could tell that she meant it. "Is this why you would be gone for hours every day?"

"Yeah, I had Laki help me build it," he confirmed. Lucy just seemed to hug him tighter and he kissed the top of her head. "I'm so glad you like it, but you need to see the inside!" He helped her up the ladder and she squealed when she saw the bookshelf.

"These are the books I've been wanting to read!"

"I might have overheard your conversation with Levy last week," he confessed. "This seemed like the perfect time to buy them for you."

"Nobody except for Laki knows this is here right?" Lucy's eyes narrowed and Natsu nodded his head aggressively.

"It's just our _secret_. Now, do you want to watch a movie?"


	5. Chapter 5

The END

Struggle: A forceful or violent effort to get free of restraint or resist attack

Playlist: Dare by Megan and Liz, Demons by Imagine Dragons, Centuries by Fall Out Boy

Spoilers for the current manga arc, but who in the fandom doesn't know about END by now?

It had been a month or so since Fairy Tail's defeat of the Spriggan Empire and Zeref's death. It had also been a month since Natsu had transformed into END and taken over his older brother's throne. During that time, Natsu had managed to retain parts of his former personality that blended with his current demonic personality. He still had his trademark pink hair and, despite what everyone was telling him, he kept Igneel's scarf. The Tartaros demons had regenerated to serve him so they had to obey him under the threat of death. To Natsu, the only thing that was missing was Lucy. Sure he still _kind of_ cared about Fairy Tail and the thought of anyone hurting them made him furious, but his feelings remained the same for Lucy. Natsu desperately wanted her to be near him, wanted to make her his queen. Little did he know that the woman he was in love with was kept in the prisons and was being used as a punching bag for the nine demon gates. It was only when Natsu was walking around at night because he couldn't fall asleep that he smelled Lucy's scent of vanilla and strawberries combined with the tang of blood and whimpers and screams of agony. Immediately he flew down the stairs and arrived at the cell where Lucy was being kept. She was covered in blood and looked half-dead.

"Lucy!" he shouted at her and Kyoka, Seilah, and Jackal stopped their torture.

"Natsu," Lucy managed to say and she smiled. Hearing her voice, knowing that she was alive made his expression soften slightly towards her. He melted the lock that kept the door shut and placed himself in front of her to protect her from the three demons.

"What the fuck have you done?" To say he was angry would be an understatement. The demons froze as they felt their master's wrath rolling off of him in waves.

"We were just having some fun. We wanted to play with her, but she was struggling so we had to do something to discipline her. Are you not happy with that?" Seilah replied with a sweet smile. Natsu didn't reply but he was shaking with fury. Normally his eyes were still their regular color but right now they were a burning red. The talons that replaced his fingernails seemed to grow longer and more lethal.

"Get out of here before I kill you. If any of you so much as lay a finger on her again I _will_ personally burn you alive." Believing their master's threat they scampered out of the room and down the hall. Natsu sighed as their scent faded away. "Lucy," he murmured and carried her bridal style back into the main part of the castle, heading straight to the potion-maker that resided there.

While Natsu was collecting a potion, Lucy was taking a bath thanks to one of the servants working in the castle. Ever since the war with Alvarez ended and the Tartaros demons regenerated they had taken her and had begun torturing her for fun. The worst ones were Seilah, Jackal, Lamy, and Torafuzar and they had been relentless in their cruelty. Then they began to tell her things, that Fairy Tail was destroyed, that Natsu had forgotten about her and was with Seilah instead. Every time they had said that, Lucy had fought back as much as she could, whether it was just a glare or sometimes she even gathered enough strength for a Natsu there, angry and ready to fight for her had helped heal her spirit and reassured her that maybe not everything changed. Reassured her that the person she cared more about than anyone else still cared for her in return.

"Lucy," Natsu gently shook her awake, careful of all of her injuries. "Wake up."

"Natsu," she gave him a smile and it took his breath away that she still managed to look amazing despite all of her injuries. The demon responded with a tender smile.

"I have a healing potion for you, can you sit up?" She nodded and he carefully helped her sit against a pillow so her back wouldn't be on the headboard. She took the small glass bottle and gulped down the contents. "How does it feel?"

"Good." As he got up to leave Lucy's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. "Stay. Please." Like he could ever say no to her. Without a word he climbed into the bed with her and carefully wrapped his arms around her waist.

When she woke up Natsu was playing with her hair. "You stayed."

"Of course I did," he reassured her. "I can't be around any of the other demons because I'm afraid I might kill them and I don't want to leave you alone. Luce," he hesitated and Lucy smiled at hearing her nickname. "How long were you here?"

"I can't remember, but definitely for what felt like a while. They never let up and then I would go in and out of consciousness. They had all told me that you made Seilah your queen and that you didn't care about me anymore and that Fairy Tail was broken and everyone was dead and so many other terrible things." Tears started leaking out of her eyes and Natsu held her tighter anger steadily rising in him once again but he tried to control it. He would get revenge for her, thankfully Lucy didn't see his sadistic grin at the thought of punishing the people who had hurt her.

"I promise I didn't make Seilah my queen and I had no idea you were here. If I had known you would never have been treated like that."

"How would I have been treated?" At that point Lucy didn't even know why she cared. It could have been to see if this version of Natsu still cared for her, which was ridiculous considering he was the one who had threatened to kill the demons under his control if they hurt her again.

"Like a queen," he answered and kissed her forehead. At hearing his answer Lucy's heart warmed and she snuggled closer to him. "Will you be my queen Luce?" She frowned.

"What about Fairy Tail? I don't want to abandon them," she replied, her heart hurting at the thought. With a quiet laugh, Natsu showed her he still had his red Fairy Tail mark even though it was surrounded with swirling black tattoos.

"They understood. We can still visit and I told them that they're more than welcome to come here. Besides, I still need to have that fight with Ice Princess to see if his devil-slayer magic can beat me." Maybe Natsu didn't change all that much.

"What about the Tartaros demons? Mard Geer seemed eager to kill me and get me out of the way."

"Anybody who hurts you dies," he growled and Lucy wasn't sure if he meant it or if he was exaggerating...probably the former though. Lucy slowly nodded her head, her eyes fluttering shut again.

"Sure Natsu, I'll be your queen," she murmured right before she fell asleep again.


	6. Chapter 6

**Climax: Culminate in an exciting or impressive event; reach a climax**

 **Playlist: My Life Would Suck Without You by Kelly Clarkson, Birthday by Selena Gomez, Favorite Record by Fall Out Boy**

Lucy's birthday had always been uneventful. Ever since her mother had died, her father never celebrated it and while everybody who worked at the manor made her cake and managed to find some sort of present, it just didn't feel exciting. Much to her surprise, this particular birthday would be considerably different than most of the others.

The day had started off as normally as it always did. Warm sunlight spilled across the floor from a window that was, as always, left unlocked. Snores from a certain dragonslayer and a blue cat talking in his sleep about fish were in her bed as well, but that wasn't anything new. As quietly as she could, she crept into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for the day. The sound of water had woken Natsu up and he rubbed his eyes. "Happy, c'mon wake up," he gently shook the exceed awake and looked around the familiar room. He noticed that there was a journal of some sort on her desk and his curiosity got the better of him. After skimming through the page that was open, he noticed one important detail that he never learned about his best friend. How did he not know Lucy's birthday? A second later, Natsu realized her birthday was today.

"Natsu?" Happy asked as he walked over to where his friend was standing. "What's wrong?"

"Happy, today's Lucy's birthday!" he exclaimed. "We need to do something for her."

"And just what do you think you're doing?" a very annoyed Lucy asked as she stepped into the room. Natsu had been so caught up in his thoughts that he never heard the shower turn off, or hear the door open. Not giving them enough time to answer, she hit both of them with her infamous Lucy kick. "Get out of here you jerks! You should know better than to read my stuff by now!"

After rubbing his head to relieve the pain Natsu stood up and went straight to the guild. "Mira, I need to talk to you about something."

When Lucy walked into the guild that morning, she was completely unaware of the plan that Natsu, Mira, and the rest of Fairy Tail had developed while the blonde was gone. Everyone acted normally, save for shooting some knowing smiles at each other. The day proceeded like it normally would. There were brawls, most of them started by Natsu and Gray, Cana drank, you know, the usual. When it was 6:00 Levy walked over to Lucy who was chatting with Mira at the bar.

"Hey Lu, there was this really good book that I needed to show you before the bookshop closes," Levy told her. Lucy was ready to go as soon as Levy mentioned a book.

"What are we waiting for then?" The two mages strolled out of the guild talking and laughing. As soon as they left the guild became a flurry of activity. People were putting up balloons, Mira brought out a large cake that she had baked earlier when Natsu had told them it was Lucy's birthday. Gajeel had suggested playing music but was answered with all of Fairy Tail yelling "No!"

"Quick they're coming back," Wendy announced as soon as she detected their scent coming back towards the guild. Everyone ran to hide under tables, under the bar, or anywhere really where they wouldn't get caught easily. Before anyone could forget, Lisanna turned the lights off so the whole building was dark,

"That's odd," Lucy commented when they saw the guild was dark and quiet. "Levy do you know what's going on?"

"I don't think so. Maybe we should go in just to see if anybody's still there." When they entered through the doors, Levy turned the lights on and everyone jumped out of their hiding places to yell "Happy Birthday!" Lucy was stunned speechless, especially once she saw the "happy birthday" poster that Reedus had drawn hanging from the beams in the ceiling. Natsu scampered up in front of her with a proud grin.

"Do you like it?" he asked. "We spent a lot of time working on this you know."

"Did you plan all of this out?" Lucy asked in surprise.

"I just brought up the idea, the others did everything else," he admitted and looked down at the ground. Lucy flung her arms around his neck and hugged him.

"Thank you so much, I've never had a birthday party like this before. I guess this makes up for you peaking at my journal." Natsu winced at the reminder of what had transpired earlier that morning.

"Yeah, I'd say I'm sorry but, I think it turned out well. Nothing else in there really grabbed my attention." She just tightened her grip on him and smiled.

"You're the best." And with that, the day that started off as ordinary had _climaxed_ in a party that put any other birthday celebration to shame.


End file.
